Ha! There's been literally zero progress with that since the very beginning of the thread.

In all seriousness, the amount of time I wasted on this drama in the past week is criminal for someone of my calibre. And not just the time spent writing, it's also been constanly floating in my head. I need to stop. I wasn't supposed to start in the first place. It was supposed to be a few quick looks.

LOL what rock have you been under? Moose went for Tai Otoshi and Sirc countered with a pretty sweet Osoto, landed in side control and hit a heel hook in a scramble. Moose ragequit and Sirc got a Hall of Fame tag

Now darkness comes; you don't know if the whales are coming. - Royce Gracie

Kerpo is a guy in his late 20s. He has loved martial arts all his life, but for whatever reason (mostly money) never got around to doing it. So with 30 closing in he feels it's now or never and Kerpo finally decides to do something about it, looks around for beginner's courses and goes to one. That martial art seems weird, all black belts seem somewhat incompetent and he googles ****, finds bullshido and reads about aliveness. Kerpo gets wise and finds another martial art, one that trains with aliveness.

Now Kerpo here isn't a fatty, but he's not fit either, so he gets injured easily in a high intensity martial art, most of the injuries are not game breakers but still make him take time off every now and then. Around the time he starts the sport he also forks a kid into the world. He's still training, but the family and kid takes more and more time. As does his fledgeling career. Then he decides to finish his studies at the same time because he doesn't want to be a ****-up father that never finished his studies. All the while the training times at the gym get worse and worse, meaning no combining of commuting. Kerpo is now sitting about four hours a day commuting on training days.

So it gets a bit much, and when his back gets hurt he takes some time off. A bit later, uninjured and mentally refreshed he gets back to the gym. Things are going great, but then he fucks up a move is hurt bad. Kerpo limps on for about six months on and off with an aggravated injury until there's no option besides surgery.

Recovery takes a year, but he's back on the mats again. Hooray! Two months after that the gym splits and his martial art moves away, adding 20 minutes more commuting per direction, and gets a lot more expensive. Kerpo trains with the stragglers at the old gym but there's nobody good there. Kerpo loses motivation, but pops in every now and then to keep it up.

Finally someone does something stupid and Kerpo gets hurt again pretty good, he's switching jobs. His kid gets ill. Kerpo decides enough is enough. He loves the martial arts but sees no way out of the dilemma that leaves him the opportunity to improve.

Some time passes, and Kerpo can't stay just another office drone. The MA bug has bitten him too badly. So he does what he can, finds a more local gym and joins a relaxed group training another martial art. It's fun and there's no injuries, but it's colliding with timing of kid's hobbies constantly. He participates as much as he can, but then he switches jobs again. Now he's commuting close to three hours a day just for work. He can't make the training times unless he's really lucky. So he grudgingly gives up for the same reason as before -- not seeing any way to improve since getting more consistent training time per week is all but impossible, and it's just too much.

This leaves Kerpo a 30-something guy who has a few crooked fingers, an ankle that never feels quite right, a toe that doesn't curl like it's supposed to, a surgically enhanced shoulder, a wonky rib cartilage, a neck pain that never really goes away and a few smaller things.

So our hero of the day, Kerpo is still relatively noob and he knows he hasn't really improved any in years. He sees guys he started with that are now in the upper echelons of his martial art but never feels bitter because he'd choose his family and kids any day over a hobby. He has a family he lives for and a career to support it, and little time for else, except maybe banter about the things he loves with like minded people every now and then.

But Kerpo here is just another whiny bitch of a hobbyist and clearly just using the term as an excuse to why he still sucks after all these years.

In the spirit of honesty and integrity which is the heart and soul of this site I would like to clear up some factual inaccuracies in prior descriptions of myself on this site.

Originally Posted by cualltaigh

Just when I thought being a short fat middle-aged white accountant who lives in the suburbs and drives a soccer mom car couldn't be any more gangsta.....

Unequivocally am I not, nor have I ever been (in any sense of the word) "gangsta".

I know this may come as a shock but I could no longer bear to live this double life, pretending to be something I'm not. I have enrolled in a 12 step program to accept my middle class blandness and just hope that, over time, I can restore myself in the eyes of this community.